98 students died by suicide in central varsities; SC/ST, OBCs most

NT Correspondent

Bengaluru: The suicide among students in central universities like IIT, IIM, IISER, and NIT continues to reveal the burden that these students face along with the discrimination.

According to the information by the Ministry of State for Education in the Parliament, 98 students have killed themselves in the last five years in these institutes.

The majority of them are SC/ST and minorities. The Union Minister of State for Education, in a response to the question in the Rajya Sabha, revealed that of the 98, the majority of the deaths have been reported from the IITs.

According to the data from the Education Ministry, the deaths at IITs stand at 39, followed by 25 in NITs, 25 in Central Universities, 4 in IIM, 3 in IISER, and 2 in IIITs.

The number of deaths in Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) is 20 for the year 2023.

SC/ST & OBCs

According to the ministry, 26 out of 33 suicides at IIT from 2018 to 2023 were from SC/ST and OBCs. It accounts for 80% of the total suicides in these years.

However, the suicides in the IIT in the year 2023 stand at six, taking the total count to 39, matching the figures of the Education Ministry. The number of deaths among these communities from 2014 to 2018 stands at 8, revealing it has tripled after 2018. However, the death toll of the students from the general category from 2014- 18 stands at 11.

Of the two suicides in the IITs in 2023, one was from the SC/ST community. While there is a significant decrease in the total number of suicides in IIT compared to 2022 where the death toll was at 5, including the students from all the categories, the death of SC/ ST and OBCs are often told to occur due to caste-based discrimination.

Several educationists argued that the caste-based discrimination in these institutes multiplied in the last ten years.

“There needs to be more SC/ST reservation for the appointment of teachers, which can help address the issues of students from these backgrounds and prevent suicides”, they said.

The reservation for them stands at 15% and 7.5% respectively.

But, according to the Education Ministry, only 149 from SC and 21 from ST have been appointed to the IIT as of 2022. This means that out of 6,043 faculty members, only 2.8% of them have been appointed. As of 2022, only 13,000 students from SC/ST and OBCs enrolled in IIT, out of 105,000 students.